Quick! Grab the beer!

16 Ounces Goes California

I’ve been raised, residing & growing in the amazing state of Washington for all 26 (almost 27!!) years of my life without leaving- okay, I’ve obviously travelled but that’s not the point! With a mild stint of small-town living two hours east of the mountains in Ellensburg, WA for my first two years of college, I’ve never experienced anything else. I’ve thought about moving 1,000 times, craved that sense of adventure and putting myself in a truly beautifully uncomfortable situation. Looked at schools in Oregon, California and even New York, dreamt about running away to Nashville or Boulder, even felt compelled to start something fresh and brand new… but never felt confident enough to bite the bullet.

It’s too expensive. I’m too introverted. I won’t make anything of myself. My savings won’t last me a second. What the hell am I even thinking? – Literally every excuse was mine. Excuses to play it safe and to just ride out the motions of ‘living’.

But here I am, starting to put pen to paper- er… fingers to keyboard, and just two weeks away from moving to the gorgeous, beautiful, terrifying and scary state of California. Okay, not scary in the sense of monsters and bad things… scary because I’m literally packing up my car and heading south.

“Do you know what you’re doing??”“Are you sure you’re ready for this type of move?”“Have you found a job?” “How are you going to support yourself?” have all been things I’ve heard since I made this decision just eleven weeks before. No, I’m not sure I’m ready for this. I don’t know what I’m doing. I have no idea where I’m going to work or how I’m going to get all that precious money into my bank account. But you know what? I’m SO damn excited for this. For the last 3+ years I have constantly worked two jobs, gone to school for the majority of my 20’s and been too f*cking exhausted to take care of me.

When did we stop channeling our inner badassery and doing things for our wellbeing and start playing life safe??

The last three years have taught me countless things about myself; I’m so damn good at being complacent. And when you think about it, aren’t we all? We literally go through school to get to college, and once we get to college we are forced to decide (at a very young age) what we want to do with our lives, we go to classes and take the exams, graduate and then are shoved in to the real world to make enough money to afford that $2,300 one bedroom apartment (oh, also did you know that in Seattle you have to make an average of $96,000 a year just to afford said one bedroom???) that feels like Harry Potter’s closet all while feeling the heavy weight of student loans upon our shoulders. We struggle through 50-hour (70+ hours for me) workweeks just praying for the weekend where we can drink, Netflix binge and never leave the house. Forget about mental or physical health, we’re surviving just until we can make it to retirement.

I had this idea back in February that I was going to move to either Oregon or somewhere in California.; why these states? Both are HUGE beer states, that make some damn tasty things and will value your love and interest in craft beer. I had no idea where, I just knew that this was it. I either was going to make my life happen or just keep fighting that little dumbass thought of depression until I was too old and sick to give a damn.

As the deadline of my September “Move or Die” date seemed to be fast approaching, I ruled out Oregon entirely. Realistically I would just move to Portland and that’s WAY too close to home. Should I be able to drive home in a short three hours in the middle of a crisis? Heck no! I didn’t want that. Let me back track a little bit… We all know I adore all things beer whether that’s writing about it, drinking about it or obsessing about… I just love all of it. While my writing has been amazing, I don’t expect anything from it; I would love to write about your beer, brewery or event but I also have no idea what the hell I want to do with my life. I know that I’m not cut out for two meaningless jobs; I know that I’m meant to do more whether that means I’m leaving a mark on this world or just being happy doing what I love.

So where am I headed? Pretty much Santa Rosa to start, then we’ll go from there! If you’re around NorCal let’s grab a beer or three!

All I know is that I’m no longer going to be 16 Ounces of Seattle- welcome to the new 16 Ounces Of… well, I haven’t decided on what it will be. So… stay tuned!!